Education

IIE DIGITAL DESK : The Supreme Court on Monday declined to stay or postpone the School Service Commission’s (SSC) fresh recruitment tests for West Bengal, turning away a plea that sought to push back examinations scheduled for September 7 and 14. Petitioners had urged the court to intervene on behalf of applicants who said they needed more time or separate arrangements, but the bench refused to intervene in the fixed timetable while observing that certain limited relief would be appropriate for specific categories of candidates.

The court’s order clarified that teachers who have been held to be “untainted” by prior probes into the 2016 recruitment irregularities will be permitted to participate in the new process. The apex court also ruled that these eligible candidates cannot be disqualified on account of a newly prescribed 50-per-cent marks criterion in graduation or post-graduation, since many of them had earlier qualified under the 45-per-cent threshold. That carve-out was meant to avoid penalising teachers who had been part of the earlier panel but lost appointments after judicial scrutiny. 

Following the direction, the SSC opened a portal to allow such “untainted” teachers to apply afresh; authorities set a limited window for submissions and finalised logistics ahead of the September exam dates. The portal was reported to be open for a short period in late August, with admit cards and other procedural dates tied directly to the planned exam schedule. While some teacher groups had pressed for a longer delay or a separate testing arrangement, the court signalled that administrative timelines needed to be respected so that the recruitment exercise could be completed within the statutory framework. 

The hearings come against the backdrop of a broader and long-running legal dispute: in April this year the Supreme Court had quashed the earlier 2016 SSC recruitment process after finding evidence of serious irregularities, a decision that led to the cancellation of thousands of appointments and to heated political and administrative debate in the state. The state government’s subsequent review petitions seeking reconsideration of that judgment were dismissed by the court, which reaffirmed that the earlier selection had been vitiated and that a fresh, credible selection process was necessary. 

For candidates and schools, the unfolding legal and administrative developments mean a compressed timeline: thousands of posts are to be filled through the fresh selection, and the court has emphasised the twin imperatives of fairness to affected teachers and minimal disruption to students. While the bench did not grant the broader relief sought by petitioners to defer the exams, its order to protect eligible, untainted teachers from disqualification attempts to balance individual grievances with the need to restore normalcy in staffing. The SSC and state education department will now carry forward the recruitment according to the court-approved framework and timelines.